Equity markets in Asia rose on Wednesday morning after upbeat earnings helped the Nasdaq and S&P 500 indexes reach record closing highs on Wall Street overnight, while oil retreated from its near six-month highs, according to Reuters.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was up 0.1% in early trade in Asia. The gains followed a strong performance on Wall Street, driven by robust results from Coca-Cola, Twitter, United Technologies and Lockheed Martin, it said.

Hong Leong IB Research said on Dow Jones, the recent better-than-expected US corporate earnings would be able to sustain the momentum at least for the near term to retest all-time high of 26,952, given that the majority of corporate earnings reports have topped expectations.

"Overall, 1Q19 profits of S&P 500 companies are now expected to decline 1.3% against 4.2% drop at the start of the April's earnings season.

"As the worst could be over for the construction and building materials industries following news of the revival of a few key mega projects recently, any further profit-taking pullback on Ekovest, Iskandar Waterfront City, Kimlun Corp Bhd, Advancecon Holdings Bhd, Ann Joo Resources Bhd, Lafarge Malaysia should attract investors looking for short-term rebound gains.

"Meanwhile, stronger USD index overnight could also witness some bargain-hunting activities on the resilient gloves stocks such as Top Glove Corp Bhd, Hartalega Holdings Bhd and Supermax Corp Bhd," it said.